Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle

Ümmühan Yeşil Dağlı; Erdoğan Halat

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

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Ümmühan Yeşil Dağlı ¹ ^* , Erdoğan Halat ²

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¹ Yildiz Technical University, TURKEY² Afyon Kocatepe University, TURKEY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study explored 5-6 year-old children's conceptual understanding of one geometric shape, the triangle. It focused on whether children could draw a triangle from memory, and identify triangles of different types, sizes, and orientations. The data were collected from 82 children attending state preschool programs through a one-on-one interview, during which children completed five paper-pencil tasks. Findings showed that the majority of the children (93%-96%) successfully identified a prototyped triangle. Approximately half of the children experienced difficulties in identifying triangles of different sizes, types, and orientations. The most difficult area was identifying types of triangles, where an isosceles triangle and a right triangle were presented, followed by identifying triangles in different orientations, specifically flipped and rotated ones. Children appeared to identify and classify the triangle relying on the visual prototype. These findings provide support for the Prototyped Theory, van Hiele theory, and for works by Clement and colleagues.

Keywords

conceptual understanding of triangle
young children
prototype theory
van Hiele

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 12, Issue 2, February 2016, 189-202

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

Publication date: 17 Jun 2016

Article Views: 4360

Article Downloads: 4318

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How to cite this article

APA

Dağlı, Ü. Y., & Halat, E. (2016). Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 12(2), 189-202. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

Vancouver

Dağlı ÜY, Halat E. Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2016;12(2):189-202. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

AMA

Dağlı ÜY, Halat E. Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2016;12(2), 189-202. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

Chicago

Dağlı, Ümmühan Yeşil, and Erdoğan Halat. "Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2016 12 no. 2 (2016): 189-202. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

Harvard

Dağlı, Ü. Y., and Halat, E. (2016). Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 12(2), pp. 189-202. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a

MLA

Dağlı, Ümmühan Yeşil et al. "Young Children's Conceptual Understanding of Triangle". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 12, no. 2, 2016, pp. 189-202. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1398a